Hawks president strongly backs coach, team

McDonough says idea of firing Quenneville during long losing streak never entered mind

March 29, 2012|By Chris Kuc, Chicago Tribune reporter

John McDonough was emphatic when asked if at any point during this season — even when the Blackhawks were in the midst of their nine-game losing streak — he ever considered firing coach Joel Quenneville.

"Absolutely not," the Hawks president said Thursday.

Then, to drive home his answer, he repeated himself: "Absolutely not. We have great confidence in Joel.

"He has won two Stanley Cups, one as an assistant coach and one as a head coach. Those of us who have been in sports — I've been in sports 32 years — we've seen these losing streaks and they're not a lot of fun to go through. Good teams figure a way to come out of them, which we did."

McDonough backed the efforts Quenneville and general manager Stan Bowman to get the Hawks back to the level they were when they captured their first Stanley Cup championship in 49 years in 2010.

"There's no panic button here," he said. "The communication between the front office, the general manager and the coaching staff is very fluid. We're in a good position."

And if the Hawks were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the second consecutive season, would jobs then be in jeopardy?

"We're not anticipating any changes," McDonough said. "We extended both Joel and Stan not too long ago. When we won the Stanley Cup we had 112 points and then last year needing to dismantle the team with 10 players (departing) we actually finished with 97 points, which was a pretty good year by everybody's estimation.

"Hopefully, we're going to be in that range again this year. It's so important in this league just to get in (the playoffs). That's the most important part of this. I'm very proud of the job Joel and Stan have done."

McDonough added he's pleased with the players as well.

"I feel we have a very, very good team from top to bottom," McDonough said. "We have one of the premier coaches — Joel Quennevile has more wins that any active NHL coach. We're proud of what he has done here in Chicago. The time and effort that Stan and Joel and the coaching staff put into all of this really is laudable."